Unit 9

1. Did you find the CoSn website useful?
I did feel the website was excellent and sas useful.  Obviously the information was most pertinant to leaders in the field of technology and/or district leaders, but it was a tremendous source of information over a wide variety of technology education related topics.

2. What information on the website was most useful to you?
I really appreciated the articles that dealt with the empowering the 21st century superintendent as well as those that talked in depth about the special challenges associated with being a district's technology director.  However, what I probably got the most out of was the information on cyber-security.  This issue, and more importantly how to ensure cyber safety in today's world, is something of critical importance and one that effects all aspects of the district.

3. How will information from this website help your Technology Committee?
The greatest challenge that I see which faces our technology committee is how to best prioritize the many different technology issues which face the district.  There is a tremendous number of forces in regards to technology that pulls our resources in a variety of different directions.  The challenge facing our committee is to use the information that is currently available to them to the best of their discretion and determine what is the best, most effective way, in which to make those expenditures.  The different information and insight provided in this website serves as a great tool that could be utilized by our technology committee to help decide how best to make those purchases.

4. What implications does this information have for technology planning in your school?
One thing that struck me was how the position of technology leader within a school district is such a unique, and relatively new, position as compared to other leaderships positions which are much more traditional.  While the challenges of a building principal and superintendent are varied, they are also very similar to challenges facing school leaders 25 years ago.  With that said, the position of technology director didn't even exist until a matter of a few years ago.  What this website seems to suggest is that major technology questions facing our district should not be made exclusively by the tech coordinator, but rather the responisibility should be shared by other district leaders as well as classroom teachers.